When the boy passes, the blackbird goes in front of the boy, limping,
limping. When the boy stoops (to catch him), the blackbird escapes a
little further on. At last the boy, getting impatient, puts his basket
on the ground, in order to go quicker after the blackbird. The fox,
who kept watching to get hold of the basket, goes off with it, not to
the place agreed upon, but to his hole, and there he stuffs himself,
eating the blackbird's share as well as his own.
Then he says to himself,
"I shall do no good stopping here. The wolf is my enemy, and the
blackbird, too. Something will happen to me if I stay here. I must
go off to the other side of the water."
He goes and stands at the water's edge. A boatman happened to pass,
and he said to him:
"Ho! man, ho! Will you, then, cross me over this water? I will tell
you three truths."